Celebrating "World Oceans Day" with whales and dolphins in the Azores

Today it's World Oceans Day and we are celebrating this day dedicated to our blue planet in one of the best ways: out on the ocean encountering wild whales and dolphins in their natural environment. The sky and and ocean are bright blue today so we have great conditions to spot them. We spent the morning with the 3rd and 4th largest animal species in the world, the sei whale and sperm whale respectively. There were two sei whales travelling together, always maintaining a constant speed, probably to reach their summer feeding grounds around Greenland. The sperm whale was a bit further offshore, out in deep water where they prefer to feed in the depths on squid. The sperm whale allowed us to enjoy the magic moment that they are famous for: lifting the magnificent tail high out of the water. Our swimming with dolphins clients also had some great moment this morning, swimming with a group of our resident bottlenose dolphins. The dolphins were particularly curious this time, repeatedly passing right in front of the faces of the people in the water. To make our World Oceans Day tour even more complete we also encountered other types of marine life. In the morning we spotted many Portuguese man-o-war and loggerhead turtles and from one of our boats an ocean sunfish was also seen. We also spotted our most sighted seabirds species, the Cory's shearwater, yellow-legged gulls and common terns, as well as a more rare bird, the Bulwer's petrel. In the afternoon we encountered the same two sei whales, and this time they were more curious and almost bowriding our boat "Song of Whales". We alsos saw bottlenose dolphins (the wonderful group of Bubblemaker), loggerhead turtles, portuguese man-o-war and Bulwer's petrels. 

Photos from the morning tour:

Watching one of the two sei whales surfacing

 Sei whale

Sei whale blow

Sperm whale breathing at the surface

Sperm whale diving

A tiny baby loggerhead turtle

Photos from the afternoon tour:

Sei whale

Sei whale

Sei whale

Sei whale

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin

Aboard "Song of Whales"

Bubblemaker takes the lead

Bubblemaker greeted us not too far away but as the sea was a bit wavy it still took a bit of time to get to this lovely group, our swimmers also had a good time with Bubblemaker and family. After the bottlenose dolphins we got the news of a whale but our boats searched far and wide and had nothing to see. We stayed and watched a wonderful group of common dolphins and a few portuguese man-o-wars. 

Photos from today:

Bubblemaker taking the lead

"I'm swimming with humans!"

Common dolphin

Master of surfing

A chance encounter with a humpback whale

Today was another day of not so good weather for whale watching, especially in terms of the bad visibility which reduces our chances of finding whales and dolphins. Nevertheless, our clients today set out to try their luck in these conditions. You never know what you might find if you don't try, and today our clients and crew were in for a surprise. Just outside of the marine they came across a humpback whale! Not once, but twice! During both our morning and afternoon tours this humpback whale was no more than a few hundred metres out of the marina. In the morning our whale watchers also encountered some common dolphins and an ocean sunfish and in the afternoon a loggerhead turtle. Although the wet weather didn't allow us to get photos of the animals today, the best part was taking the chance and actually seeing them.

Encountering the 2nd and 3rd largest animals in the world

After a week of bad weather we finally had the chance to return to the ocean today. And what a day it was! First, we started the morning with two fin whales to the east of Ponta Delgada. One of them was a very big adult, the other a bit smaller. Several times we got to see them at the surface when they returned from their dives. Closer inshore we encountered a small group of common dolphins which we were surprised to see were accompanied by a Risso's dolphin. In the afternoon we tried to see a fin whale again, but only managed to see the blow from far away. So we went to two sei whales instead, which we got to see really well. Finally, for our third tour we headed out in the mist to encounter a group of sei whales travelling together. We counted 4 individuals, 3 adults and a juvenile, although from our ID photos of their dorsal fins it seems there were more adults. It was a really nice encounter, not having to wait long to see whales at the surface because of how many there were.

Photos from the morning:

Fin whale

Risso's dolphin

Watching a loggerhead turtle

Portuguese man-o-war

A lonely krill

Photos from the afternoon:

Sei whale dorsal fin close-up

Sei whale footprint (mark left behind from the movement of the tail)

Photos from the third tour:

May 2016 sightings statistics

It's been another fantastic month of whale and dolphin watching off São Miguel in the Azores. In total we encountered 11 different species; 6 whale species and 5 dolphin species. This is typical for the Azores during the spring time, the best time of the year to see the greatest number of species. We have encountered both regulars that we see often and know very well (especially our resident groups of bottlenose dolphins, such as the group of "Bubblemaker") and new visitors that we have not encountered here before. All of the sperm whales, blue whales and humpback whales we encountered in May are new to us, meaning that we have not photographed them here before and they are now new additions to our catalogues. One of the humpback whales we saw at the start of the month stayed around São Miguel for at least a week and a half and was also seen off northeast Iceland last year. We definitely had some nice surprises this past month, including a rare encounter with beaked whales, a very curious minke whale that came to check out all our boats and even a curiuos blue whale.  As well as whales and dolphins this month we encountered loggerhead turtles, leatherback turtles, a sunfish, hammerhead shark, blue shark, flying fish and free-floating animals such as Portuguese man-o-war, jellyfish, salps and a tunicate colony. As for the birds, we now have a lot of Cory's shearwaters around as well as plenty of gulls, terns and some rare visitors including some little egrets and a black-headed gull at the end of the month.

Whale and dolphin sighting frequencies by day in order of those encountered most often:

• Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) - 95%
• Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) -90%
• Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) - 75%
• Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) - 35% 
• Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus) - 20%
• Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) - 15%
• Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) - 15%
• Striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) - 10%
• Minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) - 5%
• Beaked whale (Mesoplodon spp.) - 5%
• Pilot whale (Macrocephalus spp.) - 5%

The calm after the storm

After a few days of bad weather we finally had the "calm after the storm". Today we could enjoy a beautiful sea full of marine life. 

We started the morning with a small group of Risso´s dolphins. It is always a pleasure to see these amazing creatures! After the dolphins we went to the area where the lookout found a family of sperm whales. We could enjoy the company of one of them who was really playful rolling around, showing us part of its tail, we could even see its head out of the water, sometimes we ask ourselves... who is watching whom? When we were starting the way back we had one last surprise... a fin whale!! The second largest animal in the world!

In the afternoon we had two tours, during the first one we saw a nice group of common dolphins, bowriding the boat. When we were heading to the area of a fin whale we saw a group of bottlenose dolphins but they were really spread out so we saw them really quickly. We found a fin whale again, this time it was really calm for a while, checking every boat. We ended this day with two different groups of common dolphins.

Photos from today:

Sperm whale tail

Fin whale blowing

Fin whale surfacing

Sperm whale head

Dorsal fin from the fin whale

A distant blow

Today we went in different directions to encounter different groups of dolphins. Our boat Song of Whales were with a group of bottlenose dolphins while the smaller boats stayed with a lonely bottlenose dolphins. It's rare to find them alone but sometimes they sent out scouts to find food or a male leavs a group to search for females. Next we found a large group of common dolphins and Song of Whales joined us. Then we set of to an area of a fin whale. Several of our boats never saw the body of the whale, they only the blow in the distance. But one boat were lucky to see the whale good enough to confirm the species. We also past by the beautiful place of Vila Franca Islet. The boats left the marina again in the afternoon in search of whales and dolphins, this time to the west of Ponta Delgada. We searched an area where our lookout had seen a sperm whale earlier, but unfortunately we did not see it, not even the blow this time. We did have a nice encounter with our friendly common dolphins though.

Photos from today:

The big lonely bottlenose dolphin - SMILE

Common dolphins surfing

"Alfredo" with a common dolphin friend

At Vila Franca Islet

Red rock crabs

Hello "Song of Whales"

Photos from the afternoon: